Team Stats

Passing Yards

Rushing Yards

Turnovers

Time of Poss.

BALTIMORE – Franklin & Marshall gave Johns Hopkins its toughest game of the year Saturday at Homestead Field. The Diplomats held leads of 10-0 and 17-14 against the No. 11 Blue Jays before Hopkins rallied to escape with 28-23 win in Centennial Conference (CC) football action. The Diplomats (3-6, 3-5 CC) held Hopkins (9-0, 8-0 CC) to its lowest point total of the year, keeping the Blue Jays out of the endzone in the first 20 minutes of the play.

The Diplomats came in with a ball-control game plan that worked to perfection as F&M out-possessed Hopkins 40:00 to 19:55.

F&M struck first with a 28-yard field goal by Chris DeStefano midway through the first quarter. The kick came at the tail end of a 12-play, 60-yard drive that chewed up over seven minutes. The drive started courtesy of a Ty Savastio interception just four plays into Hopkins first possession. F&M picked up two fourth-down conversions to keep the drive alive, one a fake punt, the other a John Harrison strike to John Kaschak for 13 yards.

The Diplomats took a 10-0 lead at 8:04 in the second quarter when Harrison foundJordan Zackery for a 77-yard touchdown. Zackery took a bubble screen near the line of scrimmage, picked up a few blocks, and outran the JHU defense to paydirt.

Hopkins quickly answered when Daniel Wodicka took a Hewitt Tomlin pass and outran the Diplomats secondary to the endzone to cut the deficit to 10-7 with 7:32 remaining in the second quarter.

F&M moved the ball out to midfield on its ensuing possession before being forced to punt. E.J. Schneider's 37-yard punt pushed Wodicka back to the Blue Jay 13-yard line before Wodicka raced up the sideline, and deep into F&M territory, before being caught by Schneider and Lamont Jackson. The 72-yard return set the Blue Jays up at the Diplomat 15 and Tomlin scored on a 10-yard run three plays later to give the Blue Jays a 14-10 lead at the half.

The Diplomats took a 17-14 lead on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Harrison toBrian Kelly with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter. The touchdown pass capped a stunning 16-play, 91-yard drive that took more than nine minutes off the clock.

Hopkins quickly responded, to the take the lead for good, when Scott Barreltta capped off an eight-play, 65-drive with a two-yard run to put JHU up 21-17 at the end of the third quarter.

The Blue Jays extended their lead to 28-17 when Scott Cremens caught a Tomlin pass for a four-yard score with 3:21 remaining in the game.

F&M answered in under a minute as Harrison moved the Diplomats 63 yards in 48 seconds with the final 17 yards coming from a perfect pass to Tim Muller for the touchdown. The Diplomats two-point conversion failed, to make it 28-23.

The Diplomats attempted an onsides kick, but Hopkins covered the ball up at the Diplomat 40-yard line and the Blue Jays were able to run out the final 2:27 to seal the victory.

Harrison went over the 300-yard mark for second time this season. The senior signal caller threw for 302 yards on 23 completions and three scores on the top-ranked defense in the CC, hitting seven different receivers. Muller and Paul McGann each had six receptions for the Diplomats, who rolled up 430 yards of total offense.

John Kaschak rushed for 86 yards to lead the way on the ground for F&M. Kaschak will enter the last game of the season two yards shy of second place on the F&M career rushing list.

Brian Velasco led the way of the defensive side of ball with eight tackles while Nick Barbieri finished with seven stops. Savastio turned in six tackles, with a forced fumble, a pass break-up, and an interception, which set the tone for the game.

F&M returns home next weekend for the season finale when the Diplomats host Gettysburg at 1:00 p.m.